April

Lawyers Journal

2012 MBA Annual Dinner will honor Rep. DeLeo as Legislator of the Year

By JENNIFER ROSINSKI

April 2012

More than 50 years after the legal
community first began to talk about reforming the management of the
state's Trial Court Department, it has become a reality. It's a
change that could never have happened without the work of Speaker
of the House Robert A. DeLeo, who partnered with Supreme Judicial
Court Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland to draft legislation that
will, this spring, place a civilian in charge of the court's
business functions.

"This was the first time in my history that a speaker and Supreme
Judicial Court chief justice were standing together," DeLeo said, a
hint of awe in his voice as he retold the story of their
partnership from his seat in a wing-back chair inside his
Statehouse office adorned with ornate wood paneling.

DeLeo admitted that the Legislature and the judiciary have a
history of not getting along. "Usually we're at each other's
throats," he said. Not this time. DeLeo, himself an attorney, said
he approached Ireland about court management: "How about you and I
work on a bill together?" The chief justice took him up on the
unlikely offer.

It is for that ability to join two groups often on opposing sides,
and a long history of working to advance MBA-supported legislation,
that DeLeo will be honored with the 2012 Legislator of the Year
Award at the MBA's May 31 Annual Dinner at the Westin Boston
Waterfront. This is DeLeo's second time receiving the honor; the
first came in 1998 for his support of guardianship
legislation.

The MBA has pushed for court reform since it published its first
report, Res Gestae, on the issue back in 1976. Additional
studies were to follow over the next few decades, among them the
independently commissioned 1991 Harbridge House Report and the 2003
MBA Court Study Task Force Report, both recommending hiring a
non-judicial court administrator.

Problems with hiring and promotion within Massachusetts' Probation
Department were the impetus for court management reform, said
DeLeo, who has been speaker since January 2009. In the aftermath of
the disclosure about troubles in the Probation Department, DeLeo
said his first visit was to Father J. Donald Monan. The Boston
College chancellor chaired the committee that wrote 2003's Monan
Report, the blueprint for court reform. "I think now is a great
opportunity to talk about judicial reform," Monan told DeLeo.

And talk DeLeo did. The speaker spoke with prominent members of
the legal and legislative communities, including MBA Chief
Operating Officer and Chief Legal Counsel Martin W. Healy. "The
interest I got was fascinating," DeLeo said. Healy, who has
advocated on myriad court and legal reform measures for well over
two decades said, "the chess board was finally aligned on the issue
and it took bold and courageous leadership to advance such
wide-sweeping change."

The legislation -- signed into law by Gov. Deval L. Patrick in
August 2011 -- not only puts a civilian in charge of non-judicial
business of the court, but provides much-needed reforms to the
Probation Department hiring process. All job applicants must take
standardized tests, and every recommendation -- only considered
after a candidate is named a finalist -- must be written and made
public. "We have an awful lot of checks and balances," DeLeo
said.

Court management reform wasn't the only legal issue DeLeo helped
get passed using his knack for bringing together representatives
from various viewpoints. Massachusetts' landmark alimony reform
bill -- signed into law in September 2011 -- found support from
DeLeo, without which the bill would have never made it to the floor
of the House of Representatives.

DeLeo said he was honestly "shocked" that the bill became law, and
wishes the Legislature could have that same level of cooperation
more often.

"Without the work of the people who formed the blue ribbon
commission, [alimony reform] never would have happened," said
DeLeo, a former assistant registrar of probate whose past legal
practice handled divorce cases.

Immediate Past President Denise Squillante, a family law
practitioner in Fall River, was a part of that group, a legislative
task force created by the Joint Committee on the Judiciary. "She
really played a big part in making sure that it was done," DeLeo
said.

A full-fledged career in politics wasn't a conscious decision of
DeLeo's, although he did find the subject interesting. DeLeo was
elected to the House of Representatives in November 1990 and has
served as chair of House Ways and Means. A peek into the speaker's
childhood illustrates the intensity of that interest.

"My parents would often mention that when I was six, I would watch
conventions," said DeLeo, quickly adding that despite being a
Democrat, he was equally interested in both parties' conventions.
"I would get up on my table or chair and mimic what was being said
at the time."

While a student at Suffolk University Law School in 1976, DeLeo
even helped campaign for Jimmy Carter in the Federal Hill section
of Rhode Island, a neighborhood with a high concentration of
Italian immigrants.

Respected for his listening skills and honesty, DeLeo made his
debut in politics as a Winthrop Town Meeting member. He held that
title until the town changed its form of government six years ago,
replacing representative town meeting with a town council.

"I was the first town meeting member in history who went door to
door," said DeLeo, noting that he campaigned with homemade
signs.

DeLeo went on to sit on the Winthrop Democratic Town Committee and
Board of Selectmen for nine years, serving as board chairman for
three. It was there that he learned the art of handling sensitive
issues affecting different groups. Winthrop has had its share of
complicated issues, including its relationship with Logan Airport,
its beachfronts, tolls and the construction of the Deer Island
Waste Water Treatment Plant in Winthrop Bay.

"Local government really prepared me well, I think, for state
government," he said. "My understanding that the decisions they
make here … can affect local government." ?

Annual Dinner set for May
31

The Massachusetts Bar Association is proud to announce it will hold
its 2012 Annual Dinner on Thursday, May 31, at the Westin Boston
Waterfront, 425 Summer St., Boston.

Join us for a reception, beginning at 5:30 p.m., which will be
followed by the Annual Dinner at 7 p.m. The event will feature the
presentation of the Legislator of the Year Award to Speaker Robert
A. DeLeo and the annual MBA Access to Justice Awards.